Bolivia to Peru - Floating Islands, Lake Titicaca and Whistling Llamas

There isn't much to say about Potosi other than it is high. If you walk to fast you run out of breath. Most people go to visit the mines. We decided not to, as they sound horrendous. The miners work in awful conditions and most die about ten years after starting working in them from the bad air quality. You have to climb through tiny tunnels and sign a waiver to say it is okay if you die. We stayed a night, took some pictures and then went onto Sucre.

Getting dinner at the market in Potosi

Sucre is a beautiful town. We planned on chilling out there, maybe putting up the blog and visit a museum or two. Then Niamh spotted a job opportunity, so manys the time was spent fretting over a CV and cover letter. We managed to take a wander around the town and splashed out on our second purchase of souvenirs of the trip, some lovely embroidered cushions and llama socks (the mate cup in Argentina was the first).

We visited a textile museum (Museo Textil Indigena), which had displays of fabric and outfits worn by the Jalq'a and Tarabuco people. Niamh loved it and has written up a post in Tales from a Teapot.

The next stop was Copacabana on the shores of lake Titicaca (feel free to giggle here!). We arrived at Copacabana early enough and started looking for a hostel. We tried a few places and settled on one called Residential Paris. Mostly because we thought it was half Irish owned and had wifi from 6 a.m until 11 p.m. It turns out the cafe downstairs was half Irish owned and was not part of the hostel and wifi was from 6 p.m and didn't work most of the time. This was a town wide problem though, one of the wifi companies crashed for the majority of the time we were there. Not a problem unless your trying to send a job application, grrr. The hostel was grand though, the staff were lovely. We were a staggering four floors up, which doesn't sound much but at this altitude it takes it out of you a bit.

The first day we arrived, we went out for a bite to eat in this nice restaurant which served an amazing trout. It was one of the nicest meals we had in South America. Good job Bolivia.

The next day, Niamh was busy on the laptop typing like a monkey writing Shakespeare. After delivering a beautiful sonnet, we went down to the Irish cafe called El Condor Y El Aguila Cafe (The Condor and The Eagle), which became our haunt. We bumped into a few Irish people, including a couple from near The Bell in Blanch. Niamh used to do Irish dancing with their daughter's friend. The coincidences never cease. We went to a hotel to watch the Ireland Scotland game, but lets not speak of that!

We decided we needed to do something touristy so we climbed Cerro Calvario. It was not a hard climb, although it is quite steep, but it was tough in the altitude. It was well worth it, with beautiful views over the town. We done as the locals do and bought some beer to drink while watching the boats on the lake down below. It was very idyllic, except for the taste of the beer. The penchant for sweet things in South America also exists in the world of beer and it is not a positive development.

Niamh buying the beer

Emmet drinking the beer

We had pretty much exhausted the list of things to do at this stage, other than get the boat out to Isla del Sol. So that is what we did. We booked the tour for the following morning. It is an island on the lake of Titicaca, which the Inca's had set up some settlement on. Originally the locals had gone there to escape the wrath of the Inca warriors. But determined and as organised as the Inca's were, they eventually prevailed and took the island and it's inhabitants as they had so many times before. This history is not factually correct,Emmet has decided this is what happened though, who's to judge!

There were a few different options to see the island but we decided to get dropped off on the north end and walk the 3 hours to the south.  It was tough enough in parts, some of the island rising to 4000 metres high. But it was completely worth it. We stopped off first at this small long abandoned settlement and had lunch looking out over the lake. You couldn't really pick a finer spot to munch into a banana cake. The tank satisfied for the time been we made tracks again, out onto the southern path. Obviously there isn't much you can say, other than it was once again another beautiful place in South America and we will let the photos do the talking instead.

Irish coloured boats!

Hippies camping by the beach

When we got to the southern village, we started to look for a restaurant called Los Velles that the Irish guy who owned the cafe had told us about. We walked through the village, which was really nice and followed the signs which sent us off through a forest. We walked up to it and it had great views over the lake with a few donkeys in the garden, which Emmet got to know while waiting for his food.

The guy who owned the place was lovely and we went with the recommended dishes by our Irish coffee man. The trout and vegetarian pizza. I know, vegetarian pizza, sound fairly rubbish but it was the nicest vegetarian food I had ever tasted. That said, we ordered our food at 2.20 and when it arrived out at 3.30 we were a bit anxious as we had a 20 minute walk to the boat which left at 4. So this only leaving us 10 minutes to eat our two dishes was a bit of a rush. We ended up leaving with half the pizza in our hands. Road pizza, it's nearly as good as road beer. Nearly. When he brought the food out, you could tell he was a little stressed as he knew we had to leave in a few minutes. But he had cooked up two amazing meals on a remote island which has no electricity. Not bad sir, not bad at all.

We paid our bill and walked/ran down the hill to the harbour. We made it with time to spare and were able to start digesting. A successful day out. We got the boat back and spent the night watching movies. Thankfully our computer was fully charged as the electricity went in the whole town early and didn't come back on that night. The next stop, Peru.

We had a fairly painless border crossing and arrived into Puno, also on the banks of Lake Titicaca. On the bus we got approached by a man called Fernando who owned a hostel called Intikilla. The pictures looked good, it was a decent price and he offered free transfer, so we decided to take him up on the offer and check out the place. It was lovely, the nicest accommodation we have stayed in. He put us in a the suite, which meant we had our own sitting room, bathroom, kitchen (disclaimer, the kitchen only had a sink and some presses, and a bit of a smell, so it was more like a glorified room with a sink and a stink) and of course a bedroom, with three beds. We don't need three beds, but we got them anyways! We had a lot of fun watching films on the laptop in our sitting room, attempting to drink Peruvian wine, which I would not recommend anyone try unless they first have their taste buds severed off. We also refrained from the local delicacy, see picture below!

Our bus getting a lift across the lake

 

We were very touristy in Puno. We first visited the ancient ruins of Sillustani where nobility were buried in massive towers.

Can you see the puma/lion face?

Whistling llama

On the way home we made an unexpected stop to a Peruvian family, which Niamh has written about in Tales from a Teapot.

The next day we went out to the floating islands called Unos. The people built islands made of reeds in the middle of the lake to escape the Incas (sound familiar! You can see where Emmet's confusion arose). There are 75 islands still in existence with several families living on each. They have to anchor the island down by driving steaks attached to ropes into the ground below the lake. This also means they can move the island by taking up the stakes and paddling! The family on the island we visited were lovely. They showed us inside their house, dressed us up in their traditional clothes and sang as we were leaving. We bought a beautiful hand embroidered wall hanging off them before getting on a boat made of reeds (called the mercedes benz!) to bring us to the next island. We were a bit peckish and they happened to have a restaurant so we ordered some trout. We received the freshest meal we have probably ever eaten. They went to the side of the island, caught a trout each and brought them in and cooked them. It was delicious. There are only a few photos here cause, em, you may see a pattern here, but Niamh plans to write up a post on Tales from a Teapot.

We bought the blue one!

Getting the reed boat across the lake

Dinner!

That evening we were stalking people on facebook when we got a message from Jerry and Aisling, who happened to be in Puno too. It was also Aisling's birthday eve. They managed to entice us from our suite lair, not much else would have! We met them for some pizza in a great place called Pizza e Pasta, or something like that, and then went for a few beers in a rock bar.

After getting to see Jerry and Aisling again we headed onto Arequipa the following day. It's a really nice place and we stayed in The Flying Dog hostel. It was a really nice place and the staff were great.

The main thing to do there is go and see Colca Canyon. It's the second biggest one in the world, impressive, right.....we didn't bother. Instead we chilled. After a hectic few weeks Arequipa was our place to eat (we had a potato dish in a place called Hatunpa, yummy, do not pass through Arequipa without stopping in here, forget the canyon!), drink coffee and recharge in preparation for Cuzco.

Sydney - Christmas, New Year's and Friends

The first day we arrived Evelyn had organised a Christmas picnic in the park. Niamh was very excited about the picnic, but also slightly annoyed that yet another bunting opportunity arose and she had no bunting. The point has been proved once again that bunting is an essential traveling staple.

We made an orange and apricot couscous salad and Ev and Nick made delicious Christmas brie and cranberry sandwiches, among other goodies. We did have an enviable food table by the end of it. The dog walkers all had a bit of a gawk on the way past. We ate a ridiculous amount of food and lounged on picnic blankets, occasionally taking shelter from rain showers. Emmet disgraced himself in a rugby kicking competition, his excuse was the shape of the ball, it is good to have an excuse. After the picnic, we met some of Emmet's school friends in a nearby bar for a catch up and wept silently into our very small glasses at the price of Australian drink.

We split our days in Sydney between sightseeing and just flaking. Niamh reached the low of watching the Kardashians and vows not to have TV when we get home to avoid such incidents in the future (Yeah right Kirwan, 60" flat screen, sky sports, history channel, done! Just don't watch crap and it is fine.)

One day we went to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and got our obligatory tourist shots. Well, we got a few until Niamh's impatience at being on the photo side of the camera set in, it happens. Later we went to the Modern Art Museum which has the usual 'brick in a corner' rubbish, but also some really interesting and beautiful exhibits which Niamh photographed extensively. Just a note to all budding modern artists, an alternative to video installations already exists, its called film and it generally has a narrative, not just weird random stuff happening for no reason.  

We went down to Darling Harbour which is a really nice part of the city. It has lots of bars and big expensive boats in the harbour. It is against the law to enter and not say 'Yah, my new aga is simply divine darling, rah rah rah'. Actually, it is not really that posh, but there are fancy boats. Later, Brian and Sarah had us around for a lovely Thai Curry. It was so nice we decided not to leave and stayed with them for the night.

Evelyn took us for a beautiful walk from Bondi to Coogee, which included an ice cream stop! There may have been a slight spillage on Niamh's part, but it was only the melted part at the end, so all was forgiven.

We also hung about in Surray Hills, near Ev, and got acquainted with the cafes!

We spent Christmas week in Jervis Bay, which is south of Sydney, with Emmet's mates from home. Brian and Sarah and Kev and Aoife all live in Sydney. Two other friends Keith and Sue, who live in Wellington, flew over from New Zealand to join us for Christmas. Unfortunately, Aoife was away. The night before we left, we all met in Brain and Sarah's for a bbq, as a warm up to an Aussie Christmas. Keith and Sue had big news, announcing they are having a baby. This babies nickname will be "Liddle Diddle". We stayed with Kev for the evening, ready for the drive down in the morning.

The house was beautiful with a huge kitchen/dining room area to chill out in. There was also a big TV and sitting room upstairs which was perfect for Kev and his outrageous DVD collection, which he was good enough to bring a selection of along with him. Christmas movies sorted.

Jervis bay is beautiful. There isn't much to do, which is kind of what you want at Christmas! There was a beach, a golf club and a bowls club. So we played bowls one day, Emmet got in a couple of rounds of golf with Keith and Kev and we spent lots of time on the beach and chilling out together in the house.

Niamh's closest shot, pity it wasn't a reflection of her performance over the day!

We ate like kings for the week, mainly thanks to Keith and Brian. We had a bbq with 'up the butt' chicken (when you put an open can in the chicken). Very tasty. And had a mammoth Christmas dinner with, wait for it, three different types of stuffing. Oh yes, that's how,we roll up in Jervis Bay y'all.

In the evenings, we played poker and monopoly and drank from our fine selection of alcohol. Good times. Also pictured is the mulled wine that ended up on the monopoly board during a particularly hard negotiation process and a very expressive Niamh.

Evelyn organised a trapeze lesson for us after we returned from Jervis Bay. We went for a few drinks the night before. Actually Emmet went for a few drinks with the lads, but the girls weren't invited! We watched some films and had a couple of glasses of wine instead. Niamh was keen to get an early enough one in preparation for the trapeze and Emmet had appeared to agree. This was shown not to be the case when he strolled in at 4 to a peeved Niamh getting temporary respite on the couch. The lads were in the dog house but once the girls got over not spending a night with the lads, all was good. Who could blame them really, we are great to hang around with.

Emmet was a little concerned about the trapeze due to his fear of heights, but in the end, he was flying (ha pun). The first thing we had to do was warm up and then practice on a little swing on the ground. Niamh wasn't able to pull herself up on the bar and was a little worried. However, we were assured the momentum would make it easier when on the real thing, and this proved to be true. Our first trick was to jump off the platform (the hardest step and there were a few false starts), swing a length, then pull our legs up over the bar, let go and reach backwards. We learned a few more moves and lead up to doing a catch. When it came to it, Emmet caught nothing but air. Niamh got it no problem, as did Ev (you can see her doing a very graceful swing in the pictures below). Now whether this was due to the topless dude waiting to catch them or not is unclear but you can make your assumptions on that one. Anyway, after Emmet's missed catch, he proceeded to fall over on the net to a rather ungraceful end to his trapezing career. Some people are clowns and made for the circus, others aren't. Well done Niamh!

New Years we spent with Evelyn and Nick. We stayed in their place with their flat mate Paul for a while, about two weeks altogether. One of Ev's mates works at the naval base at Sydney harbour and got us tickets for the firework show, so we were very lucky. We had plenty of space, we brought a picnic, blankets, cooler bags packed with beers, chairs to chill out on. It was great.

Niamh's sister Annie was in Australia, but we nearly missed each other. They scooted up to Sydney early and we got to spend a day with her and her travel buddy Sherry. We got a ferry out to Manly, an island with a beautiful beach and nice village. It was a roasting day so we sat out for a little bit and then took shelter in a cafe. In the evening, we headed back into the city centre, had a couple of drinks and then all met with some of our friends for the final goodbye for now. It is a pity we couldn't keep the Kirwan party going for a few days longer, but we'll just have to save it for Dublin in June!

We are in Santiago now, trying to get through our jetlag. We love South America so far and are looking forward to 5 months of travel adventures here starting with a Jerry and Aisling reunion.